O.C. 'Night Stalker' victim sentenced to life of confusion

June 7, 2013

Updated Aug. 21, 2013 1:17 p.m.

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On Aug. 25, 1985, Bill Carns was asleep in this same bed in his Mission Viejo home when Richard Ramirez climbed through an open window, shot Carns with a .25-caliber handgun and raped his girlfriend – part of the Southern California rampage of the "night stalker." Carns woke up to a different life. The drawing over his bed of his home in North Dakota is of Carns and his girlfriend at the time of the attack. It was given to Carns on his 30th birthday when they were still together. FILE: MICHAEL GOULDING, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Bill Carns shows where one of the three bullets fired by Richard Ramirez entered his head. He used to tell people he could fit a golf ball in the wound above his left eye. FILE: MICHAEL GOULDING, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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While in the hospital, Bill Carns doodled this on a photograph of his attacker. Recently he said he would like to torture Ramirez with a chain saw or a belt sander. MICHAEL GOULDING, FILE: ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

On Aug. 25, 1985, Bill Carns was asleep in this same bed in his Mission Viejo home when Richard Ramirez climbed through an open window, shot Carns with a .25-caliber handgun and raped his girlfriend – part of the Southern California rampage of the "night stalker." Carns woke up to a different life. The drawing over his bed of his home in North Dakota is of Carns and his girlfriend at the time of the attack. It was given to Carns on his 30th birthday when they were still together. FILE: MICHAEL GOULDING, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Billy Carns will still obsessively check to make sure the windows and doors of his house are locked. He will still ask you if you want to touch the scar above the spot in his head where one bullet is still lodged. He will still forget what he ate for breakfast or if he ate breakfast or what year this is.

I spent four days with Carns last September at his home in Bismarck, N.D. Friday, I called to tell him Richard Ramirez had died, Bill asked if I was the Egyptian guy who came to his house. I explained that no, I'm the pale, gray-haired, white guy from the Register.

Since Aug. 25, 1985, when Ramirez broke into Carns' home and shot him three times in the head, Carns has had no short-term memory. His mother, who lives next door, ties his shoes. He collects pens and batteries – thousands, it seems, are tucked in every corner of his home. He sleeps in the same bed frame in which he was shot. He has a picture of him and his former girlfriend, who was raped by Ramirez, over his bed.

"I'll be celebrating today," Billy said, upon hearing of Ramirez's death. "I think I'll go to a good restaurant."

Carns, now 58, will continue to serve the life sentence of confusion and erratic behavior that has haunted him since 1985. He's had a few odd jobs over the years, but he doesn't have the concentration skills to sustain employment. He lost touch with his girlfriend years ago, and she got married and moved away.

Ramirez's sentence – he originally received the death penalty – was never fully executed.

"I feel bad his sentence wasn't carried out like it was supposed to be," Carns said. "He should have been put to death immediately after it happened."

TEEN SPOTTED RAMIREZ

About an hour before Carns was shot, James Romero, then 13, heard someone in his Mission Viejo backyard. Romero saw the black-shirted Ramirez leaving his yard through a side gate. Romero was able to get a description of the car and a partial license plate number.

Police had their first break in the "night stalker" case.

"I always have nightmares that I'm being chased or attacked," Romero, now 40, said Friday. He now lives in Phoenix and is the owner of In the Scene Limousine. He has 18-month-old triplets.

He said his wife's older daughter brought up the "night stalker" recently.

She asked him: "What if he gets out? What if he comes after you?"

He doesn't have to worry anymore.

"It's a relief," Romero said. "It's crazy to think he's been alive in jail so long. The courts never followed through. The system failed. It's not fair to the victims.

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